O'Driscoll To Undergo Surgery

It has been confirmed today that Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll will undergo surgery on his shoulder and could be out for up to six months.

Brian O'Driscoll has a long standing injury to nerves in his neck and shoulder. Leinster have today confirmed that he will undergo surgery soon and could be out for up to six months.

This is likely to rule him out of Ireland's 2012 RBS 6 Nations campaign, as well as most if not all of Leinster's Heineken Cup title defence.

Joe Schmidt's men face a challenging trip to Stade de la Mosson to take on Montpellier this coming Saturday, with the management reporting no fresh injury concerns following the league derby win over Munster.

Aside from other long term absentees Mat Berquist and Shane Horgan, the remainder of the squad trained in UCD on Monday afternoon as the province geared up for the first competitive meeting of the two sides.

There were milestones for Ireland forwards Devin Toner (75 appearances) and Mike Ross (50 appearances) last time out in a game which also marked seasonal Leinster debuts for a further six players - Gordon D'Arcy, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Shane Jennings, Sean O'Brien and Eoin Reddan.

D'Arcy lies in joint sixth place in the Heineken Cup's all-time try-scoring list (23 tries in 77 European appearances) since making his tournament debut back in the 1998/99 campaign.

Jonathan Sexton continued his fine run of recent form with a 100% kicking return whilst scoring 21 points against Munster, boosting his points tally to 44 in two games to date, with Rob Kearney also chipping in with his first drop goal in Leinster colours.

The team for the Pool 3 clash with Heineken Cup newcomers Montpellier will be announced on Friday afternoon prior to the squad's departure for the south of France.

Looking forward to facing England on Sunday, Ireland winger Tommy Bowe said: "We've trained very well this week, we're really excited about the game. It's about going out there and doing whatever we can to get ourselves that win."

Second row Devin Toner previews Ireland's crunch RBS 6 Nations clash with England, saying: "It's a pretty formidable English pack. Attwood and Kruis have played fantastically well. They're well drilled and focused and their scrum and lineout are very good."

Looking forward to facing England this weekend, Ireland back rower Sean O'Brien said: "It's obviously exciting, but it's one game at a time. I don't think there's any more pressure on us than in the first two games. That's the way you have to look at it."

Irish Rugby TV sat down with Ireland Under-20 scrum coach John Fogarty to talk about the U-20 Six Nations so far and Friday's clash with England at Donnybrook. Tickets are on sale on www.ticketmaster.ie.

Shane Byrne and Malcolm O'Kelly preview the Ireland v England Legends match which takes place at Donnybrook this coming Saturday (kick-off 7.30pm). Tickets are available from www.ticketmaster.ie. All proceeds from the game will go to support the IRFU Charitable Trust and the RFU All Schools Charity.

Watch highlights from the Ireland team announcement press conference as Joe Schmidt reveals the team to play France. Peter O'Mahony says it is good to 'have some big figures back' for Saturday's clash.